Check Out Brian Davis’ Concrete Country Performance

We caught Brian Davis in downtown Nashville a few days after he’d come off the road with Brantley Gilbert. Not surprisingly, even when a few dozen people gathered around, he was still playing to the rafters. We placed Davis and his band amid the bars of Lower Broadway to capture the incredible history of Music City, not to mention the glowing neon signs and curious tourists. During our interview, he reminisced about moving to Nashville from a small town in North Carolina after growing up admiring country legends whose music resonates in those same honky-tonks today.

His new album, Under the Influence, is named as a nod to his musical heroes. Now, as he gains traction with a national audience, he’s releasing his own music on his own label — on his terms.

“The cool thing about being an independent artist is that we get the ability to bring music — raw and real — to the people,” Davis said. “Nobody is saying what you can and cannot do. We get to do anything that we want and our music reflects that. It’s definitely palatable for radio, but at the same time, people are getting that underground kind of vibe.”

CMT and Mountain Dew’s Concrete Country
with Brian Davis premieres on CMT on Tuesday (July 16) at 11:50 p.m. ET/PT.